Tea Party
by cherrymilk
Summary: Tifa takes Marlene's plans to throw a tea party for her friends very seriously. Unfortunately, a little mishap leaves the tea party with a very awkward, very different hostess. [Cloud/Tifa]


Tifa was sure of one thing, and one thing only: there would come a time in her life where she'd wake up, and there would be nothing to do. Well, she was a little sure. It was a shaky hope at best.

The fact of the matter was that Tifa loved having things to do. Sure, her muscles ached after a long day tending to Seventh Heaven, and making sure any children in her vicinity were well-fed and occupied was a full time job, but she _liked_ it. If something needed to be done, she would find a way to do it. Even the silliest things would find a place in her schedule.

Which is why when Marlene was very serious about organizing a tea party one weekend for some of her friends from the neighborhood, Tifa was one hundred percent ready to take charge.

"Do we have any nice cups?"

Tifa watched Marlene drag a chair across the poky little kitchen. She stood on it, and threw the cupboards open with excitement.

The excitement quickly faded as Marlene surveyed the sad collection of plain white teacups in front of her.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," Tifa said, feeling guilty, like she should have been preparing all her life for this tea party, "those are the only cups we have right now."

Marlene sighed, but then turned around and smiled. "They're fine! I don't mind, and neither will my friends."

"Who would even pay attention to _cups_?" Denzel asked incredulously. He was huddled up in a chair with a book in his hands.

"Presentation is important," Marlene said primly.

Denzel stared at her for a moment with a bored expression on his face before returning back to his book.

"Right, it _is_ important," Tifa agreed. "So the cups aren't so great – who cares? We'll make sure the rest of this place looks amazing."

Tifa and Marlene spent the next two days decorating. They made paper flowers for the designated tea party table, found candles for ambiance, and tied silk ribbons around the backs of the chairs. Marlene rummaged through the dusty boxes full of holiday decorations, producing a string of white lights. She carefully wove the lights around the vases of paper flowers that had been set on the bar top.

A frilly white and pink apron, which had been made from scraps that had been lying around, was draped on a distant chair, ready for Tifa. She would be playing the role of tea server. Pink and white paper flowers would be woven into her hair to complete the look.

They stood back and surveyed the finished product.

"I love it!" Marlene said happily. "It's so pretty."

She gave Tifa a quick hug before running off to remind her friends of the crucial importance of attending tomorrow's event.

Only a minute after she had left, Cloud walked through the door, looking exhausted after a three day long delivery stint.

He stood at the front of the room and blinked a few times, seemingly unable to process what he was seeing.

"How was your trip?" Tifa asked pleasantly.

The question apparently startled Cloud a little bit, because he gave a little start before turning to look at her. "It was fine. What's going on in here?"

"A tea party," Tifa replied. She grinned. "Marlene and I have been planning it for days."

"Oh."

Tifa gave Cloud a quick once over, noting the dark circles under his eyes and his wild hair.

"Hey, you look really tired," she said gently. "Why don't you go rest up? Don't worry about any of this, I'm taking care of it and I'll make sure we don't make too much of a ruckus."

Cloud took a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah, I think I need to pass out for a couple of hours. Or days."

Tifa chuckled. "You go do that."

* * *

On the day of the tea party, Seventh Heaven was filled with the smell of freshly brewed tea, as well as the comforting scent of vanilla cupcakes. All Tifa needed were cherries for the cupcakes – they were cooling, and waiting to be iced and garnished.

Tifa rummaged through the fridge, sure that she had seen cherries there _somewhere_.

"What are you looking for?" Denzel asked, peeking into the kitchen. His expression brightened up considerably once he spotted the cupcakes.

Tifa stood up straight, and put her hands on her hips. "Cherries. I was so sure I had some in here!"

"Cherries?" Denzel repeated. He tore his gaze away from the cupcakes, and looked at Tifa sheepishly. "I, uh, I kind of ate them. All."

"You ate…the entire box?" Tifa asked in disbelief.

"I'm sorry," he blurted. "I didn't know they were for Marlene's party."

Tifa let out of a huff of air, her bangs fluttering from the force of it. "That's okay. Where's Marlene?"

"I think she's getting dressed, or doing her hair or something."

"If she looks for me, tell her I stepped out to go to the grocery store. I'll be back in a minute."

"The store is an entire bus ride away!" Denzel called after her.

* * *

Denzel was right – the store _was_ an entire bus ride away. By the time the bus had pulled away from the stop, Tifa had already calculated how long she'd be gone for. If was counting correctly, she would be back just in time.

Tifa hopped off the bus a while later, and jogged into the store. She bypassed a million things she probably needed, and made a beeline for the slightly depressing collection of fruit and vegetables. She picked up the best box of cherries – and even they were looking a bit squished and sad. But fruit and vegetables were a luxury in Edge, so this was as good as it was going to get. Tifa zoomed to the checkout line, politely thanked the shopkeeper and stepped out.

She had approximately seven minutes until the next bus. She grinned, pleased that she was ahead of schedule. As she waited, she absentmindedly stared into the window of the store across the street. It was a used goods store, filled to the brim with odds and ends. Suddenly, she spotted them: a set of pale pink tea cups with roses painted on them.

They would be perfect.

She had five minutes.

 _I can be in and out in five minutes_ , she thought. She rushed over to the store, quickly pointed out the set to the shopkeeper, and waited for the cups and saucers to be wrapped in paper.

Two minutes. The shopkeeper was moving at a snail like pace, painstakingly wrapping each item in paper and placing them into a bag. Tifa took a deep breath. She stood there silently, not wanting to appear rude.

This, unfortunately, did not end up working in her favor. She heard the bus come and go, just as the last cup was being placed in the bag.

"Thank you," she said, taking the bag gently. She forced herself to walk – not run – out of the store.

 _It wasn't the shopkeeper's fault_ , she thought. _How was she supposed to know I was trying to catch the bus?_

Tifa wanted to chastise herself for going in the store in the first place, but she knew the cups would make Marlene's day. They were the only thing missing from the tea party.

If she ran, she could make it back to Seventh Heaven in twenty minutes, probably.

Maybe less.

* * *

"Cloud!"

Cloud, meanwhile, was still recovering from his trip. His internal clock had been messed up, which meant he kept falling asleep during the day. Today wasn't any different – he had been sitting at his desk, trying to organize the piles of paperwork, and had nodded off.

Now somebody was calling his name with relative urgency.

His eyes snapped open only to see Marlene, dressed in a white dress with lace trim, and with small flowers in her hair. He sat up straight.

"You look nice," he said, yawning. Cloud sometimes had difficulty bonding with Marlene – this wasn't for lack of trying. He had difficulty bonding with people in general. So he made a point to try to show her affection whenever he could.

Marlene, however, wasn't very interested in Cloud's particular attentions today.

"Thank you," she said quickly, brushing off the compliment. "Have you seen Tifa?"

"Tifa?" Cloud echoed. "She isn't with you?"

"No…?" Marlene giggled. "That's why I came to ask you!"

Cloud cringed inwardly, knowing how stupid his question had been.

"What's the matter, anyway?" he asked, trying to move the conversation along.

"My friends are here," Marlene said, her voice dropping to a whisper. "The tea is ready, but the cupcakes are still on the rack. And Tifa was supposed to pour the tea but…her outfit is still here and I don't know where she is!"

Before Marlene had finished speaking, Cloud had already come to the conclusion that he would be absolute rubbish at solving this particular problem.

"I don't know where she is," he said awkwardly. "I'm sorry."

Marlene's expression turned into one of sheer panic.

"We can fix this," Cloud said quickly.

"Really?" Marlene's voice was shaky.

"Yeah," Cloud said, feigning confidence.

"Okay!" Marlene said brightly. "I knew you'd help somehow, Cloud!"

Cloud smiled at her, while mentally kicking himself for having taken a nap in plain view in the first place.

* * *

Tifa's heart was pounding as she ran down the street to Seventh Heaven. She was late – very late. She pushed the door open. Instead of seeing a disaster, she saw this: empty cups, cupcake crumbs, burning candles, Marlene, five of her friends, and Cloud.

Perhaps the strangest thing about what was going on was the fact that Cloud had the filly apron tied around his waist, and was currently surrounded by little girls who seemed very content to weave the smaller paper flowers in his hair. Cloud still had traces of dark circles under his eyes. He was answering the girls' questions in an awkward tone.

Nobody had noticed Tifa just yet.

"Did you make these flowers?" one of the girls demanded.

"I think Tifa and Marlene made them," was Cloud's reply.

"Yeah, we made them _all_ ," Marlene said.

The girls tittered in approval as they surveyed the masterpiece that was Cloud's hair, now complete with flowers.

"You should give Tifa real flowers," a girl said, her tone reprimanding.

"I've given her flowers," Cloud said, almost defensively.

"It was once," Marlene shared.

There was a sudden air of disapproval in the room.

"You should give her flowers all the time!" a small voice said, shocked.

"I…okay…" Cloud trailed off, unsure of how to respond to this onslaught of disapproval.

Tifa cleared her throat loudly, in an effort to save Cloud. She tried very hard to suppress the smile on her face.

"There you are!" Marlene said happily.

"You look nice, Cloud," Tifa said teasingly.

Cloud cheeks turned an interesting shade of pink.

Tifa placed her bags on a table and began unwrapping the delicate cups. "Who's ready for more tea?"

The girls crowded around her, admiring the beautiful teacups. Tifa nodded at Cloud, who made a quiet escape. His face was still pink.

* * *

Overall, the tea party was a success. Marlene went to bed very happy, which was all that mattered, really. The fancy cups were an absolute success – judging by the amount of people needing the bathroom, maybe too much of a success.

As night fell, Tifa took it upon herself to tidy up. She spent a long time wrapping the teacups up again, making sure they were nice and padded. Even if there was no occasion to use them again, they were worth it.

Cloud, meanwhile, had disappeared. She had decided against teasing him further, mostly because she was grateful that he had gone out of his way to help. Tifa sometimes worried about Cloud finding his place in their strange family, but she was reassured every time he did things like what he had done today.

As Tifa was wrapping the last cup, Cloud came in through the front door. In his hands was a sparse looking bunch of flowers.

"There you are," Tifa said.

"Sorry. I should have told you that I was heading out." Cloud walked over to the bar and held out the flowers. "These are for you."

Tifa laughed as she took them. "Did you take advice from a bunch of six year olds?"

Cloud smiled, though his cheeks turned pink. "It was good advice."

"They're really beautiful, Cloud. Thank you. And thank you for helping so much today."

"It was no problem."

"I'm sure Marlene worships you now, since you saved her tea party."

Cloud laughed. "I doubt that."

Tifa put the flowers in a glass vase, and set them on the table. The silk ribbons still hung on the backs of the chairs.

"Why don't we have some tea?" Tifa asked suddenly. "We can use the good cups."

Cloud nodded, a small smile forming on his face. "Yeah, let's do that."


End file.
